Mother and I next caught the train to the north eastern town of Eger (Egg-air) where Egre Bikavér, the famous Bull's Blood, comes from. According to legend, in 1552 when Captain Istvan Dobo defended Eger with his 2,000 soldiers against 150,000 Turks he reckoned they might do a runner, so he got them hammered on the red. The Turks saw this and thought he had given them bull's blood to make them hard. The Hungarians won. Maybe Istvan yelled out

"THIS! IS! EGER!"

but then again, maybe not. Anyways, the Turks came back a few years later and took the joint. Hence, the most northerly ruin of the Turkish occupation is found in Eger: the needle like minaret sans the mosque that was knocked down when the Europeans returned. You can climb this awesome thing and I direct you to the pics for a feel of how narrow it is.

The other main attraction is The Valley of Beautiful Women. Here, dozens of little cellars are dug into the hills of the valley and sell you 'tastings' (full glasses) of vino for about 70 Australian cents. It is groovy and fridge temperature. Sadly though, I only saw one beautiful woman; the rest were pushing 80 and no amount of fermented grape can fix that. Mother and I only got about a third of the way around before we decided to stagger home and she walked into a power pole.

Next, we went further north east to the foothills of the Carpathians and Tokaj (Tokoi), a UNESCO listed town where cultivated vines have been about for at least 1,000 years and fossil records suggest grapes may have originated. How do those numbers work? I don't know, ask the tourism industry. Anyhoo, the Tokaj sweet wines are delicious. Also of note, there are stalks nesting on all power poles. But Mum didn't walk into any of these.

Then, 2 more nights in Budapest at 2 sweet Hostels. The first was a party hostel, the second a hippy one. I'll give details to anyone headed that way. While back there we checked out Saint Steven's Basilica where they have his Holy Mummified Right Hand.

Yes we did have a fantastic time... loved Hungary. I moved on yesterday and am now in Salzburg... have found mountains and lost the summer I've had for the last 2 months, rain and the need for warmer clothes but salzburg is a lovely city

Glad to see you in some of the photo's and your mum, she is looking radiant, it's a female thing, please pass that one.....And i would of wanted to play on the horsie to, much to Richard's disgust. SO let me get this straight, if your mum's with you, Oh My God, your Pa, Bro and horse dog are home alone, Was that really a good idea ;). Can't wait for the next installment. Cheers Big Ears.